Space Chronicles: The Last Human War (45 page)

A small silver streak raced from the direction of the larger Tanarac sun. It approached with astonishing speed.

“Sir, we aren’t getting any telemetry from it. Scans aren’t reading anything.”

“It’s the humans,
” General Tragge guessed. “That’s the only ship with no scan signature. What are they doing?”

“They’re head
ed straight for the Heptari fleet, sir.”

Heptaris noticed the odd craft
, too. Enemy starships changed course to intercept the approaching craft. As it closed, the bright silver ball easily skirted past the Heptari warships. Enemy ships fired weapons but were not even close to hitting the human vessel.

The small craft continued
toward the main body of the enemy fleet. Heptari ships stopped their bombardment of the planet and began rising into space to deal with the strange intruder. On screen eleven, Captain Kob’s heavily damaged Kyome could no longer outrun the Heptaris. Two Rahls moved in for the kill. The first ship pulled alongside the Kyome and fired into its engineering section. Engines severed from the Tanarac ship and tumbled slowly in space.

Despite losing
main propulsion, Kob’s crew continued firing their weapons. The second Rahl overlapped the first as enemy ships took position to finish off the Tanarac vessel that had caused so much trouble for their command ship.

The tip of the
main cannon on the nearest Heptari warship glowed brightly as it charged to fire. A blue bolt of concentrated energy jumped from the weapon toward the floundering Kyome. It never hit.

The human ship came to an abrupt stop directly in the line of fire between the attackers and the damaged Tanarac ship. Force from the cannon blast simply swirled around the surface of the human ship, before vanishing into its
glowing shroud. A volley from the second Rahl met the same fate.

Simon’s ship
moved slowly away from Kob’s vessel with two angry Heptari commanders in hot pursuit, leaving the heavily damaged Kyome floating alone in space.

Ludic approached General Tragge.

“Sir, we need to leave while we can. You said the humans don’t have any weapons. They can’t help us.”

“You go
. I want to see this. I’ll initiate the self-destruct sequence on my way out. I’m not quite sure what they’re up to.”

The general could not pry himself away from the compelling scene in space above
. Nor could most of his staff.

The human spacecraft remained just ahead of the Heptari warships, yet General Tragge knew it could easily outrun them. At first, it headed out
ward toward the asteroid belt, but then it made a big arc until it was headed directly back at the rest of the Heptari fleet, rising from the planet.

“Sir, Heptaris are sending more ships. I’m counting five more heavies.”

The human ship continued slowly toward the planet on a collision course with the rising fleet and followed closely by the two frustrated Rahls.

Just as the rising warships reached optimal firing range, the human ship accelerated perpendicular to its line of travel in a maneuver that seemed outside the realm of conventional physics.

Simultaneous cannon fire from five enemy ships passed through the space where, only an instant before, the human ship had occupied. Lethal blasts slammed into their own chasing Rahls, destroying both ships as their shields were no match for their own primary weapons.

The general
smiled at the skillful maneuvering.

“Impressive,
” the general spoke in the air, as if he was directly talking with the humans. “But, can you defeat an entire Heptari fleet with such tricks?”

The human ship continued p
ast layers of Heptari warships until it approached the remaining royal command ship. By now, the entire Heptari fleet was in disarray, attempting to intercept and destroy the antagonistic humans.

General Tragge thought he figured out Simon’s plan and seized on a glimmer of hope.

“Instruct our remaining ships to rendezvous above the first polar quadrant. Tell them to wait for my command. I think our human friends are giving us a chance to consolidate our fleet.”

The human ship avoided collisions with
several Heptari heavies that attempted to ram it. With a sudden burst of acceleration, it came alongside the big Codae ship.

Simon flew erratically down the command ship’s side at point blank range for her cannons. Heptari gunners fired all their weapons
, but not a single volley hit the target, even at such close range. Nearby enemy space ships maneuvered violently to avoid blasts from their own royal ship. One Cosh failed to get clear and lost its engines to a volley.

The weapons officer in the Tanarac War Room offered his thoughts.

“Sir, I don’t think the Heps can target that ship. It looks like they are firing manually, hoping to get lucky. Those are old-fashioned spread patterns.”

A second volley fired as the human ship got close to the giant
Codae vessel’s midsection. One of the heavy energy beams hit its target. To the naked eye, the human ship expanded abruptly as it simply absorbed the energy.

Simon
slowed to match the course and velocity of the fleeing command ship. A strange swelling rose at the base of the human sphere. At first, it was just an odd bump in the swirling energy mass, but the bulge grew quickly until it formed a small, secondary ball of pure energy attached to the larger vessel.

Without warning, the ball of pure plasma broke free from the human ship and raced across the short distance between the two vessels. It made contact toward the tail of the royal ship and began rolling forward,
bouncing along the contour of the command ship’s hull.

A
gaping slice opened in the enemy vessel every place the plasma touched. Loose items, unlucky Heptari crewmembers, severed superstructure—anything that was not soundly attached to the ship, spun off into space.

The energy sphere shrank as it traveled forward along the royal starship
’s surface until it vanished. Another sphere formed at the base of the human ship and followed a trajectory similar to the first, leaving a second deep gash the full length of the Heptari hull.

All the while, the human ship absorbed numerous direct hits from both the command ship cannons and
supporting heavies, all without effect.

R
aucous cheers broke out in the War Room, as they watched the damage to the Codae ship.

The enemy command
vessel turned out to space under maximum power as two Rahls tried to fill the gap between the command ship and human vessel. A third Rahl attempted to ram the humans.

Heptari warships continued firing heavy cannons into
the slow moving silver globe with no apparent effect. The entire enemy fleet followed their sole remaining royal command center as it attempted to escape the rogue sphere.

The fleet passed Kob’s disabled Kyome as they ran toward perceived safety of the first asteroid belt.

The War Room speakers crackled with static.

“General Tragge, you there?” The general recognized Simon’s voice.

“Yes, I’m here. I thought you didn’t have any weapons.”

“We don’t. We’re directing surplus energy through an overload vent. It’s kinda like throwing their own energy back at them. Pretty smart boy, that Dr. Farnthal
.”

“Who is Dr. Farnthal? Never mind.
What can we do to help?”

“I don’t know. We’re just taking whatever opportunities they give us right now. If they stop firing at us, we can’t even fire back. We need their energy for the overload dump. I sure hope they don’t figure that out. Dr. Farnthal told me to draw them as far away from Tanarac as possible. I think I’ve got their attention
.”

“Sir,
” Ludic said, “Heps are setting a trap for the humans.”

Ludic was first to notice the classic box-within-a-box Heptari formation.

“Simon, you’re flying into a trap,” the general warned. “They’re setting up a three dimensional box with one open end. That open end is the trap.”

“Yeah, I see it. Farnthal predicted this, too. You better shut down your entire planetary power grid. I don’t know what Farnthal’s got in mind
, but he asked me to warn you.”

“Shut down our power grid? Why?”

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know what he has planned. Just do it. He hasn’t been wrong yet.”

General Tragge considered for a moment before giving the order. All over Tanarac, lights blinked out.

“What about my space fleet?”

“Doc says send them to the far side of the planet and have them power down.”

Again, the general hesitated, but gave the order. On all of Tanarac, only his War Room retained backup battery power to run his monitors and computers.

“Sir, they’re closing the box on the humans.”

“Simon, are you sure you know what you’re doing? They’re closing the trap.”

“Me? Heck no,
General. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. I just fly this thing where they tell me to!”

The Royal Heptari Codae vessel slowed to a dead stop near the asteroid belt. The human ship mirrored the position.
Surrounding the human sphere, Heptari ships fired particle beams into the stationary globe. Simon became nervous about the danger in this trap.

“Doc, are you sure Farnthal knows what he’s doing?”

“No, young man. You know I don’t agree. I told you from the beginning, I was against taking this risk,” Dr. Boroski said with a noticeable edge in his voice.

If it were not for the fact that the scientist was just a photonic image, Simon would have sworn he was truly angry.

Smaller ships that had been shielding the Heptari command ship moved out of the way. All the big ship’s cannons glowed blue and fired simultaneously. Several nearby Rahls fired at the same time in a coordinated effort to destroy the humans.

With all combatants sitting dead in space, the enemy’s accuracy was excellent.

Inside the human ship, sparks flew, conduits burst, panels overloaded, lights flickered, and Dr. Boroski vanished. Simon was rapidly losing confidence when a voice formed inside his head.

“Stay calm
. This is Dr. Farnthal. The ship can handle this power surge. I am sending you piloting instructions as we speak. You must follow them exactly.”

“I can’t do this. I’ve never engaged the time displacement engines.”

“Follow my instructions. You’ll do fine.”

“But, I thought you could only use those engines in deep space
.”

“True,
under normal conditions, but these are not normal circumstances. Now, you must follow my direction exactly, because you will lose my assistance shortly. The external plasma surge is disrupting our memory banks. I’ve given you all you need. It’s up to you now. I know you can do it.”

Several more power surges blew out monitors on the main command panel and the ship began to shake violently.

“What are you doing?” Benjamin shouted his question over the chaos.

“
Following directions,” Simon shouted back. “I gotta engage our time displacement engines above maximum design load, whatever that is.”

“What will happen then?”

“I don’t know. Farnthal said something about an unstable time rift. Here goes.”

Almost two dozen attacking Heptari capital ships and the big command ship fired a steady barrage from their main cannons. The human ship grew more than twice in size as its external energy
layers swelled.

Simon carefully followed directions.
The human ship began to rotate on its axis, slowly at first, but soon it spun at a dizzying rate.

Heptaris ceased firing as they watched the odd spectacle.

Two thin shafts of energy stretched out from the top and bottom axis of the spinning sphere. The human ship appeared to elongate along those spikes. Initially, small slivers of plasma spun off the rotating energy field into space, but before long, massive bolts of angry energy flew out in every direction.

The Heptari fleet, led by the big command ship, began backing away from the sight.

General Tragge accepted the human’s warning and powered down the entire planet, but he could not resist the temptation to use his War Room batteries to keep watching.

The human ship was now so bright
, he and his staff had to shield their eyes. A nearby window to the outside world revealed the Tanarac night had somehow transformed into brilliant daylight by the false sun that was the human ship.

Without warning, the
expanding spaceship exploded in a massive flash of light and radiant heat, extending in all directions. The entire Heptari fleet disappeared inside the ball of energy. Just as abruptly, the brilliant field of the explosion collapsed back into itself like water of a wave receding back into the ocean. The vast energy field disappeared into the exact point where the human vessel existed only moments before.

The Heptari fleet appeared
none the worse from immersion in the energy bath, and the human ship was gone. Nothing remained in its place.

Heptari
vessels sat stationary, momentarily stunned by the event. A few ships began moving away from the place where the human ship was last seen. Their engines glowed as they applied power, yet their positions in space barely changed. Even the big royal ship was not making progress, as it attempted to move away.

One by one, Heptari ships began sliding
backwards toward the spot in space where the human ship once existed. Two enemy ships collided as they frantically maneuvered under full power, trying to escape the area. Pieces of their wrecked ships accelerated rapidly toward the singularity. The closer the debris got, the faster it moved until it reached some invisible barrier point, where it became a blur and vanished instantly into some un-viewable void.

It wasn’t long before the entire Heptari fleet was caught in a growing spiral of asteroids, starships and space debris. They circled involuntarily in the inescapable vortex of a black hole left when the human ship imploded. The big command ship broke slowly into pieces before its residue vanished into the center of the growing hole.

“Sir, is that a black hole?”

“I believe so, Ludic.”

The general and his staff members understood the danger of a black hole in any star system.

“Sir, look!”

One of the general’s staff members pointed at the monitor showing Tanarac’s binary suns. The energy flume that had always flowed between the two suns, now stretched far out into space. It looked like a giant, glowing ribbon caught in a strong wind. As they watched, the flume broke at its farthest point and two long threads of super hot hydrogen nuclei extended from both suns into the black hole.

G
ravitational pull from the growing space anomaly began to affect the planet. Loose items slid across War Room desks, ending up pinned against the wall closest to the black hole. The general and his staff held on to fixed desks to avoid joining loose debris.